Two unidentified individuals drained more than $23,000 from a People's Bank ATM in downtown Sheridan overnight on June 28-29 using a cash-machine theft technique known as "jackpotting," according to a Sheridan Police Department incident report.
Officer Layton Bell was dispatched to the bank at 1120 S. Rock St. on the morning of June 29 after employees reported the ATM's screen had gone black. The machine appeared to have been tampered with, the report states.
Erin Kimbrell, People's Bank's assistant vice president of operations, told police that two bank tellers discovered the problem when they went out to service the machine that morning.
Kimbrell said surveillance video showed the ATM had been compromised around 1:41 a.m. on Sunday June 28.
Kimbrell explained the mechanics of jackpotting to the responding officer and said footage showed two people at the machine pulling large handfuls of cash directly from the dispenser slot and stuffing it into a bag before leaving the scene around 2:19 a.m., according to the report.
Before the theft, the ATM held roughly $26,200. By the following morning, only about $3,000 remained — a loss of approximately $23,200, Kimbrell told police.
The ATM is owned by People's Bank. Quality Service Installation (QSI), a Kentucky-based company, serviced the ATMP with software support from FIS in Little Rock, according to the report. QSI dispatched technician Kevin Davis to inspect the machine.
Davis told officers the enclosure housing the machine's hard drives was missing screws meant to secure it inside the ATM. He also said that the drives themselves were not positioned the way his company would have left them — work he described to police as "shotty."
Officers photographed the tampered enclosure and collected two hard drives as evidence: a Crucial by Micron drive, which the report lists as the primary drive, and an Avant drive.
The hard drives were valued at $200; the stolen cash loss was recorded at $23,200.
Police instructed the bank to preserve all surveillance video on a thumb drive and to submit a verified loss statement on bank letterhead.
The Sheridan Police Department is investigating the case as felony theft under Ark. Code Ann. § 5-36-103(b)(2)(A), covering theft of property valued at more than $5,000 but less than $25,000.
No arrests had been made as of the report date, and the suspects have not been publicly identified.
At Tuesday’s Sheridan City Council meeting, Officer Everett Wilkerson told Mayor Cain Nattin and the council that the FBI is assisting with the investigation.